Smell the Roses
by Lumiere de Venise
Summary: Valentine's Day sucks, at least to a hashihime like Parsee. A certain oni thinks different. (ParseexYuugi. Cute. Yuri. Yuugi is so sweet in this fic.)


**[AN:] Besides MeilingxSakuya, I love ParseexYuugi. A easily envious "princess" with pretty green eyes and a drunk, loud and noisy but charismatic giant, somehow, is just appealing to me.**

**Prompt: Valentine's Day even though I'm writing this fic in July lol.**

**(Was gonna be 700 words divided into two parts each containing 350 words, then it was one half 500 and the other half 500 (hence why there's a break of "[...]") and then I was like 'fuck it' lol.)**

**Hope you all enjoy this little read as much as I did! **

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Valentine's Day—the day of love. _Passion. _

Embracing. Romantic resolution.

The day when the earnest feelings from oneself were given off to a beloved, ranging from either a family-type, platonic type, or romantic type.

Some lucky folks were reciprocated in their sentiment, receiving the exact same amount of gratitude and value. Even those who didn't get reciprocated would've found love towards them from someone else.

Others, however, were left by the ones they loved to wilt away with their denied desire and longing, even if the person _who_ loved but _wasn't_ _loved_ did not want to move on.

Parsee was one of the_ "others."_

For quite a few decades, the grumpy blonde had been forced to dwell either under, on top, or near a bridge that had structuring poles the same red people used for romance.

At first, whether it was Valentine's Day or just any other day, she'd break up as much human and even lower youkai couples as she saw. Any romantic duo that wanted to go on her bridge would be broken up by the time they got off.

After all, crossing her bridge comes with a cost.

Overtime, however, the sighting of young love became too much. It brought the female to memories of events that she preferred to pretend **never** existed.

Thus, she hated in private during Valentine's Day. She would go on her bridge and give disgusted looks, little taunts that gave away her jealousy, but more or less tried not to do anymore than that.

Not many humans or youkai travel around her bridge, though. She scared humans off so much, the human village made rumors about her being a literal bad omen, and youkai tended to find her unbearable.

The other residents around her were at least alright. Kisume was a sweet little girl and Yamame, despite Parsee not particularly caring for spiders, was kind and could almost make Parsee laugh.

Satori, her sister, and their pets did not come around very much, but when they did, it was nothing sour.

There was _one_ youkai though—she was an oni—who wasn't _exactly_ Parsee's favorite. The horn-having youkai, Yuugi Hoshiguma, seemed to relish in conversing with Parsee.

Parsee didn't understand why.

She was disturbed at how every insult she could throw towards the big woman seemed to draw the female in more. When the green-eyed hashihime even ordered Yuugi to start paying double the coins for each time the oni tried to flirt with her, she flirted even _harder!_

One day, when Parsee told her she couldn't cross the bridge one day, Yuugi gave her a kiss on the cheek and said to the shorter woman, _"I just thought to 'ive you a goodbye kiss then!" _ left a small but rather heavy bag of coins, and made her way on the bridge.

As Parsee felt her cheeks slightly warm up and heard the bold woman's laughter from afar, the bridge-dweller wondered deeply if she should find a way to move herself permanently back to Persia.

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**[...]**

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"What a _ridiculous_ concept of 'love' you two have," Parsee bitterly said to the human couple that quickly passed the bridge. The male of the duo had hastily given her many coins and the couple tried their best not to look at her.

"Aika, let's vow to _never_ go this way again," the male said in a whisper. The girl nodded feverishly, as if she was afraid of Parsee coming in her dreams to haunt her if they came back to the bridge again.

**Good.**

'_Valentine's day should just be canceled or used as a mockery of human dependency,' _Parsee thought as she threw one of the coins the male gave her.

She glared at the beautiful way it made a ripple into the water, jumped a tad up, and then succumbed below. There was a romantic event in the Ancient City, and although the hashihime didn't understand why, those humans were no doubt going there.

It made her sick to her stomach. If that human girl knew any better, she'd dump him at that party before he broke her heart.

Mizuhashi fixed the way she sat on the bridge's poles, her feet dangling freely. Another Valentine's Day left alone, jealous of those around and pitying hersel—

"Ay' there, Parsee, ya' wanna go to the Valentine's Day event at the Sake Tropical Bar?"

Said girl in question was so startled by the question, she lost her balance. Like a knight in shining armor—in this case with a shining _horn_—the owner of the voice saved her.

"Ya' alright there, Parsee?" Yuugi asked as she placed the fellow blonde back unto her position on the bridge's railings. Parsee was slightly dumbfounded by what had just happened.

'_S-She only used her index finger to hook me by the shirt back to safety...'_

After shaking off the admiration she supposed she felt, Parsee answered, "I am a _hashihime,_ so that's your answer. Even if I _could_ get out of this stupid bridge's area, I wouldn't go to an event for a celebration that those from the world outside of Gensokyo in other countries dwell in."

The red-eyed giant guffawed and roughly slapped the back of the short woman. "I was just messing with ya'. I'm gonna be spending it with you _right_ here."

In an instant, the bridge-dweller got off the railing backwards and turned to face the giant, responding, "We're not doing _anything._"

The oni responded with shoving a bouquet of flowers, sake, and foreign desserts the hashihime didn't recognize in her face.

"Wouldn't _hurt_ ya' to be my Valen—"

"Why are you doing this?"

"You're a loveli' type of gal."

"I treat you terribly for a _reason,_ oni. How many times do I have to keep telling you I **don't** like you? Go _away._"

"It wouldn't hurt to keep on trying, ay'?"

Parsee looked at her with a nonchalant face. She saw the sweat that poured from Yuugi's forehead, detecting it not as fear as the couple that had just passed had but of fear for the oni messing up. She couldn't say that the oni was just fucking with her, but she didn't have full proof.

The pondering female slowly took the flowers from the giant's hands and took a great whiff of the red roses. They smelled like flowers that were hand-picked that same day, and she looked at the fingernails of the taller youkai and saw bits of dirt wedged under.

"Hmm..."

Parsee looked at Yuugi. Yuugi gave a sheepish smile to Parsee.

The green-eyed beauty took the sake bottle and took a sip, and then another.

...

Perhaps, just this once, Parsee would get rid of her rule of "romance isn't allowed." She had to give the other woman credit—even the sake, which looked quite expensive, seemed to of been picked with caution.

It wasn't at all like the usual type Hoshiguma carried, so rough-handled and bitter that Parsee could smell it from far away and was usually the first sign for the bridge princess that the unwanted pesterer was coming, no.

It was sweet and reminded Parsee of strawberry cakes, and Parsee did remember that the giant once, when the oni was in an intoxicated state awhile back, asked her what type of drinks she liked. Apparently, the heavy drinker was also a _listening_ drinker.

"Very well...You seem to know what I like. I envy your boldness on such silly things such as 'romance,' but..._Kya!_"

Parsee was suddenly on Yuugi's lap, and Yuugi was suddenly sitting on the railings now. How it didn't instantly break with the oni's sheer force, Mizuhashi had no clue.

"I'm so happy, I 'eally am. Plantin', 'aking care of, and pluckin' these rose babies out was no joke!" the long-haired woman shouted as she took some sake herself before offering some to the other female. "I thought you'd _neva' _say yes."

Parsee rolled her eyes but laughed. This made Yuugi laugh even more.

"Did I just make the _princess of irritation_ giggle up a fit? Pinch me, Parsee, I _must_ be dreamin'!"

Parsee decided to kiss her on the cheek instead. Yuugi, for once, was speechless. While the expressive oni was now reduced to stuttering and blushing herself, the hashihime then kissed her on the lips and rested on her large chest.

There was a slight feeling of envy inside of Parsee, namely on that Yuugi got two kisses while the giant had kissed her only once and on the cheek, that said kiss being months ago, Parsee ignored it.

_'Perhaps this might be crazy, but I might be in love,' _the hashihime thought before she suddenly started screaming. In her flustered state, the oni she was being held by had lost her balance and the two ended up in the water.

Luckily, the sake and flowers were left on the bridge's platform at the last minute, but now one oni and one bridge princess were drenched in water.

Yuugi tried to get out and apologize, but Parsee gave an irritated laugh and simply said, "I think you doing this has made me oddly like you more, Yuugi...I'm _glad_ to be your valentine."

Perhaps the earlier accusation the usually unhappy, now overjoyed female made was false.

Parsee was not a person who'd never find love again but, for now and hopefully for a long time, someone whose love was broken and smashed apart, but had said love taken by someone else. That was...alright with her.

She found someone that loves her the way she would learn to love them.

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**[Ending AN:] It's been a while since I've been on this side of Touhou, so forgive me for any OOCness. I hope you all enjoyed this...Ciao!**


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